Christmas in numbers

12 Days of Christmas: The popular Christmas song involving leaping lords, milk maids, pipers and partridges. The European song dates back to the 16th century.

8: The number of Santa's original reindeer, according to the 1823 poem, "A Visit from St. Nicholas." Their names were: Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner and Blitzen. Rudolph --the star of a 20th century American song -- came later.

$848,600: The cost (100 million yen) of a Japanese Christmas cake -- a 35-centimeter (14-inch) chocolate cake -- decorated with 100 diamonds.

200: The number of mince pies eaten by Gus the camel after he broke out of his pen at an Irish riding school's Christmas party. The camel also drank several cans of Guinness -- which he opened with his teeth.

50,000: The typical number of letters the post office at Nuuk, Greenland, receives each year addressed to Santa Claus, or Father Christmas. Santa's helpers at the post office pledge to reply to every letter.

2 million: The number of visitors expected to visit Nuremberg's Christkindlesmarkt, one of the largest and most famous of Germany's traditional Christmas markets.

1434: The date when Dresden's Striezelmarkt began, considered the oldest Christmas market in Germany.

31 million: The number of real Christmas trees Americans will buy this year, according to Forbes.com.

$795.86: The average amount Americans will spend on Christmas this year, according to Forbes.com, with total Christmas spending estimated to reach $154 billion.

50 million: The number of copies sold of Bing Crosby's "White Christmas," the best-selling single of all time. Crosby first performed Irving Berlin's classic song on a U.S. radio show in 1941.

38 meters: The height of the world's tallest Christmas tree in Stockholm, Sweden, which features 5,000 festive lights.